A 2020 Nursery Rhyme by Sharron Green

Arts Richmond

Online - 02 July 2020

A 2020 Nursery Rhyme by Sharron Green

Way back in early 2020

a virus came attacking plenty.

Said to have started in bat poo

a very nasty strain of flu.

It traveled swiftly round the world

and everywhere chaos unfurled.

It seemed to prey on the unwell

but even young ones couldn’t smell.

It was extremely autocratic 

enlisting the asymptomatic 

to blithely share its spiky crop

-most countries quickly shut up shop.

In lockdown, families loved and loathed,

sprouted hair and Zoomed half clothed.

Parents worked from home and taught 

as jobs were lost their nerves grew fraught.

Many brave workers were still key,

they got claps not PPE.

When it was up to every nation 

to open doors and stop stagnation,

they told them ‘be alert not dense’

but commonly most lacked good sense-

desperate to meet with mates,

forgetting it could seal their fates.

The only way to halt infection 

was to develop an injection,

but by the time that had been done,

the bats had shat another one.

@rhymes_n_roses